What to take away from Iowa quarterback Brendan Sullivan’s reentry into transfer portal

IOWA CITY — Brendan Sullivan’s tenure as a Hawkeye was not particularly long.

To be exact, it was 338 days — or 48 weeks plus two days.

(That’s from the day he committed in 2024 until his reentry into the transfer portal on Friday. It’s even shorter if you start counting when he arrived on campus for summer workouts.)

The ex-Northwestern quarterback’s quick arrival and subsequent exit from Iowa City were far from surprises, though, given the current transfer portal climate and Iowa’s quarterback situation.

Sullivan committed to Iowa in May after three years at Northwestern. He seemed to be the Wildcats’ best option at quarterback at the time of his portal entry although that might not have remained the case after the spring portal window.

His former coach at Northwestern, David Braun, noted the importance of “having fully transparent conversations with our guys in terms of where we’re at.”

“We were — I don't want to say disappointed — but we were sad to see him go,” Braun said at the Big Ten’s annual football media days in July. “Proud that he's leaving with his Northwestern degree. But I definitely understood based on the conversation that we had why Sully made the decision that he did.”

Iowa still had ex-Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara on its roster. But McNamara was far from a sure bet after suffering season-ending injuries in back-to-back years and completing only 51.1 percent of his passes in 2023. Even if Sullivan could not beat out McNamara, he at least had one more year of eligibility in 2025.

Fast-forward several months, and Sullivan faced a much less favorable set of circumstances in the Iowa quarterback room this spring ahead of his final season.

Iowa added ex-South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski, who has 93 touchdown passes and 37 touchdown runs versus 20 interceptions in his collegiate career. Kirk Ferentz has not publicly declared Gronowski to be the starter in the fall yet, but one does not need a degree from Northwestern to see where things were trending.

“(Gronowski’s) played the most, and he has that production,” Ferentz said last month. “That’s a starting point. Then the guys in the room we’re excited about, but none of them have played 20 games or 30 games.”

When Sullivan spoke to Iowa reporters in July, he mentioned the NFL being a “big goal.” It is hard to reach the next level, though, if he is behind an NFL-caliber quarterback like Gronowski for his final year of eligibility.

That leaves Iowa with Gronowski with 55 career starts, Auburn transfer Hank Brown with two career starts, Jackson Stratton also with two career starts and incoming freshmen Jimmy Sullivan and Ryan Fitzgerald.

Iowa did seem to get its NIL money’s worth in its year with Sullivan, who started three games and appeared in another seven as McNamara’s backup and Iowa’s goal-to-go quarterback.

Sullivan’s passer rating of 154.3 far outpaced Stratton’s 122 and McNamara’s 115.8. He completed 71.7 percent of his passes, whereas McNamara completed 60.5 percent and Stratton completed 60 percent.

It was fast work literally and figuratively for Sullivan, who also had 150 rushing yards versus Stratton’s four and McNamara’s minus-31.

“To me, it's amazing what he did pick up in a short amount of time,” Ferentz said last month.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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